


Peachy

by Mira



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-04
Updated: 2006-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-19 15:00:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/202122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mira/pseuds/Mira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not very flattering to be a hero without minions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peachy

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, [Rosalita](http://iamrosalita.livejournal.com)!
> 
> Beta by [Princessofg](http://princessofg.livejournal.com), the [Lady of Asheru](http://lady_of_asheru.livejournal.com), and [Rosalita](http://iamrosalita.livejournal.com).

"Uncle Rodney!" A tiny girl with dark hair zoomed across the gateroom and leapt into Rodney's arms.

"Little Lizzie, little lizard, Lizzie Lizard," Rodney growled at her, blowing raspberries into her neck while she shrieked with laughter. "Hey, meet Dr. Jackson."

"Hello." She beamed at him.

"Hello."

"This is Elizabeth, John and Teyla's youngest. Where are your brothers?"

"Being horrible."

"Ah, well." Rodney kissed the top of her head and swung her down. "Dr. Jackson and I are headed off to the planet with the yummy fruit, remember it?" She nodded. "I'll bring you back some if you can tell me what x is in the equation _eleven plus x equals two times x_?"

"Eleven!" she shrieked, "X is eleven!" and he kissed her again.

"Brilliant! Tell your daddy I said so."

All three looked up when the gate activated, the explosion of light making Elizabeth laugh and Daniel smile. "Bye!" she shouted after them. "I love you, Uncle Rodney!"

The sudden transition from the interior gateroom to the golden fields on the planet made Daniel a little dizzy. After all these years of stepping through stargates, no matter how much he loved the opportunity to explore, it still startled. "You see why I suggested you take your allergy meds," Rodney said, looking around them.

Daniel nodded. "How many children do John and Teyla have?"

"Three. Two older boys." He made a face. "I managed to persuade them _not_ to name one Rodney. Got teased about my name too much to want to pass that on to an innocent child."

"It's so strange -- this isn't really what I expected we'd find."

Rodney shrugged and pointed. "This way. It's not far to the orchards. Over this rise."

Daniel followed him. "You've lost weight."

"We all did," Rodney said. "We had some hard years, especially at first. And then we had a bad harvest last year."

"So the arrival of the O'Neill --" He stopped abruptly, unsure how to continue. Rodney looked at him over his shoulder but kept climbing the hill. "I'm glad we were able to return."

"Can't tell you how surprised I was to see your face," Rodney said. "You look good."

Thanks, Daniel thought grimly. "We had our own hard years," he finally said. "I'm sorry we couldn't get a message through. I did argue that we shouldn't desert you."

"Here we are," Rodney said. Daniel saw that the valley was filled with neat rows of trees. "Right here is something like a peach. Delicious. Over that way we grow something like a plum. Radek uses the fruit to make a brandy, really good, really potent."

"I'd like to try it some time."

"Of course." Rodney grinned at Daniel. "I might happen to have a flask in my pack." They started to hike down into the nearby trees. "How's Sam?"

"Great. She sends her best. She's fond of you."

"Always has been," Rodney said. Without looking at Daniel, he said, "You and General O'Neill -- you ever, ah?"

"No. Um, well, not anymore. You know that he and Sam?"

"I figured," Rodney said quickly, still looking away.

"I'd, ah, heard rumors about you and John. You know. Years ago, before."

"No, no. He has this thing for ascended women, and then Teyla -- well, you've met her. They're very happy."

"And Elizabeth?"

Rodney laughed, and finally looked at Daniel. "My colleague, Radek, the guy who makes the brandy -- he had a crush on Elizabeth since Antarctica. What a party that was when they finally got together." He smiled, looking genuinely happy.

"What about you, Rodney?"

He shrugged. "I'm too prickly for most people." They were finally beneath the trees; Daniel could see the pale pink fruit glowing like ornaments above them. "You?"

"Oh. Um. A few, ah, liaisons over the years, but. No. No one."

"Not O'Neill?"

"Not John?"

They looked at each other, and Daniel saw reflected in Rodney's face the years of hope and loss and sadness. His hair was thin, and almost entirely grey, his face narrower than Daniel remembered, and lined. He was no longer the loud, arrogant man that Sam had been so affectionately annoyed with years ago, before Earth had had to focus all its resources on the war and leave Atlantis to its own devices.

Daniel knew what he looked like, too. He'd finally put a little weight on, and though his hair was still thick, it was as grey as Jack O'Neill's. "I still love Jack," Daniel said, and took a deep breath. That was the first time he'd ever said those words. "I always will."

"Yeah," Rodney said. He plucked one of the fruits and rubbed it between his hands. "It's a bitch, isn't it."

Daniel shrugged. What else was there to say? It was what it was. He wanted to ask Rodney if he was lonely, if he was sorry that he was only Uncle Rodney, if he'd found any comfort here at all, but there were too many years and too many light-years between them now. He'd known Rodney well once, but that was in another galaxy.

Rodney held out the fruit. "Dr. Parrish calls it a _pesh_ ," he said. "The Wraith culled this planet generations ago; only their orchards remained when we found it. I guess that means we get to name the fruit."

Daniel wrapped his hands around Rodney's, not taking the fruit from him, and then leaned over and took a bite. Juice sprang out, as juicy as a plump orange, and ran over their entwined fingers. Looking into Rodney's eyes, Daniel deliberately licked their fingers. "Good," he murmured. "Sweet."

Rodney nodded, smiling sadly but not jerking away. "Yes, yes, it is," he said. Daniel took another small bite, sucking at the juices, and then pulled Rodney closer. The ten days he'd been in Atlantis were long enough; he and Rodney had exchanged enough glances and enough confidences. They were alone on this planet of the yummy fruit, and was there a more suitable place to be in any galaxy?

Rodney put his sticky hand on Daniel's face, near his mouth, and they hesitantly kissed, just a meeting of their lips, before drawing back enough to look at each other. "Can we stay here a while?" Daniel asked.

Rodney smiled more broadly. The years had shaped his face into a permanent sadness; Daniel suspected he looked the same. Two men who lived with what they could not have. Maybe now that they'd met again, so improbably, they could help each other. "A day or two. More, if we check in with Atlantis. Radek and Elizabeth worry about me."

Daniel rubbed his damp hands against his trousers, and then wrapped his arms around Rodney. They rested together, Rodney still holding the half-eaten fruit in one hand. The feeling of another person's warmth made Daniel as dizzy as the journey through the stargate had, and was just as startling. Nobody would worry about him; he'd be surprised if anyone aboard the ship that had brought him to the Pegasus Galaxy would notice that he'd gone off-world. Anyone who might notice was in another galaxy, and in another lifetime. He could feel Rodney's chest rise and fall against his, Rodney's _pesh_ -y breath against his face, the scent as sweet as his physical presence.

Jack, he thought, and missed him so profoundly that his heart literally ached in his chest, and his breath caught. "Hey," Rodney said, and tossed away the fruit. "Hey, you okay? I don't want -- I mean." Panic flashed across his face, and Daniel remembered Sam making gentle fun of Rodney's excitability and tendency to jump to conclusions, however brilliant.

This time, though, Rodney was wrong. "I'm fine," Daniel said firmly, hanging on to him. "Listen, I'm too old to waste time. I've been alone forever, and I'm sick of it. It's good to see you, to discover that you're okay despite everything. I want." But Daniel had to stop abruptly. He wasn't sure what he wanted except not to be alone anymore, not to spend his nights in a too-big bed with no other voice in his home.

"Welcome to Atlantis," Rodney said. The smiles lines around his mouth deepened. "I've never been one to waste time myself." He kissed Daniel, really kissed him this time, and Daniel threw his arms around Rodney and kissed him back.

They were panting when they broke apart this time, and both were smiling. Daniel couldn't remember the last time he'd smiled this widely. "I'm not going back to Earth," Daniel said. "I made all the arrangements."

"You didn't even know if Atlantis still existed," Rodney pointed out, ever logical despite his roving hands and licentious mouth.

"Didn't matter. There's nothing back there."

"I'm shitty at this kind of thing, you can ask anybody," Rodney said quickly, his hands finally settling on Daniel's ass, "but I am oh-so-willing to try, and no one, not in years, has indicated, ah, and it's not very flattering to be a hero without minions, you know?"

"I'll not be your minion," Daniel warned. "I had something else in mind."

"Well, of course," Rodney said. "You opened the fucking _stargate_. You're the reason I'm _here_."

"That a good thing, or a bad?"

Rodney smiled at him.


End file.
